Sidney Crosby - Ice Hockey Players, Family and Personal Life

Sidney Patrick Crosby was born in Nova Scotia near Halifax on 7th August 1987, to Troy and Tina Crosby. Sometime later, the family moved to Cole Harbour. His father’s passion towards the game brought Sydney’s initial interest to the sport and he started playing with his father in the the backyard of their house.

At the age of 3, Sydney learned to skate and before he was 10, he started practising with his father with the dryer in their basement and the father-son duo made their backyard a mess. His father understood his kid’s obsession with the sport and as he was himself a hockey player back in his times, his tips did help young Sydney in shaping him up.

Before he turned 7, he already became popular among the local Nova Scotia press. At the age of 10, he finished the season playing in Atom with an extraordinary 159 goals in the 55 games that he ended up playing. He became sort of a minor celebrity in his locality and carried on the performance in junior and high school and looked ahead to a fairly successful career in professional level leagues.

Sydney went to Astral Drive Junior High school as a teenager and according to his teacher ‘he was a kind and extraordinary student’. He made a switch later to Harrison Trimble High School and graduated in 2005. Sydney had already established himself as a pro-level hockey player by then and the NHL draft wasn’t a farfetched thing for him anymore.

In the 2002 Air Canada cup, he played for Dartmouth Subways and performed splendidly while playing in the regular season and play-offs, leading his team to the second spot in the esteemed tournament. He was midget drafted by the Rimouski Oceanic for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and in the first season at the league in 2003-2004, Sydney scored 54 goals in the total of 59 games with 84 assists.

Canadian Junior Hockey team signed him on, and he became the only Canadian player under 18 to score a goal in the Junior World Championship. As he went back to Rimouski for the 2004-05 season, he was already being considered as one of the best hockey players in the country; that was also partly due to the media obsession with him. He proved everyone right and scored 66 goals in 62 matches that he played that season, and later led his junior national team to title victory in a tournament in North Dakota.

His team Oceanic made it to the finals of the Memorial Cup held in London and Ontario, and he ended the tournament with 11 points in the 5 games that he played. Although his team lost in the finals, but Sydney was already being considered as the best pick in the next 2005 NHL league draft.

He was just 18 year old by then and one of the youngest NHL players getting trained under Mario Lemieux for the big leagues. In his debut at the rookie season, Sydney scored a total of 63 assists and 39 goals. In his second year at the Penguins, he scored 120 points and his performance enabled him to play in the coveted Art Ross trophy. He was also awarded the highly regarded Hart and Lester B. Award.

A concussion related injury made him miss 29 games in the 2007-08 NHL season, but Sydney made a comeback in the playoffs and eventually led his team to the finals of the Stanley Cup, where his team was beaten by Red Wings, but Sydney played magnificently. Penguins signed him on for the next five years in July 2007. In 2008, he crossed the benchmark of 100 goals, 200 assists and 300 points and became one of the youngest players in NHL history to achieve the feat. The same year in the Stanley cup, Sydney led his team to a cup victory against the Red Wings.

In the 2009-10 NHL, Sydney helped his team in securing the Rocket Rickard Trophy with his performance, in which he scored 51 goals. He got his hands on the coveted Mark Messier Leadership Award due to his thrilling performance as the captain of Penguins. And for the next few years, he would play a little as concussion harmed his career and he missed out on several games. Sydney underwent surgery and the doctors allowed him to play professionally after some time.

During the off season in 2012, Sydney was honoured with Ted Lindsay award and however well his individual performance was, his team performed below their abilities and Sydney received a lot of backlash from media and fans for that. In the 2015-2016 season, Penguins made some major changes to the team and the gamble paid off as the team went on to secure the title victory in the Stanley Cup along with the Conn Smythe Trophy.

In the 2016-17 season, Crosby missed the first few games due to his concussion related sickness and upon making a comeback, he scored 30 goals in the 45 games that he played that season. His team reached the finals of the Stanley Cup that year and won it.

Apart from NHL, Crosby has helped his national team secure gold medals in Winter Olympics 2010 and later in 2014 as well. In the 2016 Hockey World Cup in Canada, Sydney not only led his team to a victory, but also emerged as the Most Valuable Player.

Sydney Crosby has a biography written by Gare Joyce titled ‘Sidney Crosby: Taking the Game by Storm’.

Sydney has also been named as Time’s 100 most influential people around the world in 2007. He does charity and his Sydney Crosby Foundation (founded in 2009) helps estranged children in his hometown of Nova Scotia, where he currently resides with his family.

Although Sydney keeps his dating life private, but he has been reported to be dating a model Kathryn Leutner.